#BOYMom Box Swap

Myles and I are quite excited about this post and sharing what we got in our BoyMom Box this year! About a year and a half ago, I shared why I love being a boy mom over on Elizabeth's blog for her Boy Mom Series. Since then she has ended the series, but now co-hosts (with Seeing All Sides and Wife Mommy Me) a yearly exchange for all boy mom bloggers. Myles lives for getting mail, especially when toys are inside, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity! Plus, I love getting to know new moms and their blogs... so win, win!

We were lucky enough to get paired with Meghan and Noah from The Adventure Starts Here! I'm really grateful to have been introduced to her and Noah. She has a great blog with tons of great content, and Noah is so smart, sweet, and cute! We talked a little about Myles' likes/dislikes, but Meghan really hit it out of the park with our box.

We got a great sampling of some of Myles' favorite things! My favorite thing to do with Myles is Play-Doh, so of course I was all over that! It instantly brings me back to my childhood. Meghan was so sweet and found a Froggy book for Myles. I mentioned to her that he really loves them, but I no idea she would actually be able to find one! We have been reading Froggy Bakes a Cake every night since.

I have mentioned several times here on this blog that I struggle with finding good bath toys. Meghan was so thoughtful to include two of Noah's favorites: Crayola Bath Crayons and Crayola Bath Squirters. Meghan also added a little something for momma! She got me a beautiful coral nail polish and some cute note cards. 

And within 5 minutes (no joke), we were in the bath playing:

Am I the only one that finds unused Play-Doh fresh out the can so satisfying!?!? 

Thanks again Chasin' Mason, Seeing All Sides, and Wife Mommy Me for putting this all together and Meghan and Noah for the perfect box!

Preschool Promotion

Last week I posted a short picture review of Myles' first year of school. 

During his last week, he also had a promotion ceremony/performance. Since none of our family could be there, I wanted to post some pictures and videos here. 

Side note: I still haven't devoted much time to figuring out my camera. I really need to learn to take better quality pictures. Anyone with a Canon T3i want to give me a crash course?!?!

Here he is with his three teachers:

Myles was the youngest in his class and also the smallest. I love it because I can still pretend he is little. These first few are from songs they sang.

A Year in Reivew: Preschool

My baby made it though his first year of school! I'm so proud and grateful of how well Myles did with his first year of school. Before he started preschool last August, he hadn't been away from me for more than a couple hours once a week or even less. He had never been around that many kids or been under someone else's (besides family) care. The transition was surprisingly smooth and we had no real problems the entire school year. He made some great friends, as did I, that I hope we can keep for a long time. 

Here is a little overview of his year in school via the camera roll:

Me: "Did they tell you to smile?"

 Myles: "Yes, but I made a mad face."

First Halloween at school. He wanted to wear this shirt and be Flash, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make him Sheldon. 

First school made Christmas tree ornament; made everything worth it!

First Valentine's Day at school. We made superhero suckers. He loved it so much, and his Valentines are tucked safely away in a box to keep for the rest of his life.

 Snack time at school helped Myles try so many new foods!

 First time something was sent home with his name written out all by himself (the beginning March.) For a while, he would write only a couple letters, mostly the M, Y, and L. The S has been tricky for him, but he finally started giving it a try and I think it's great!

Last day of school! (yes I know I spelled preschool wrong this time. I, of course, did this in the last 20 seconds before walking out the door when we were already late. No excuses though, that's horrible!)

 We are pretty excited (and a little terrified) to start transitional Kindergarten next school year. But for now, we will be enjoying the summer!!!

 

The Kids Behind the Blog: June

Very recently I stumbled upon Stephanie and her blog Wife, Mommy, Me. She has a lot of fun and unique link-ups over there and when I saw The Kids Behind the Blog I knew I just had to participate!

Since this month we celebrate Father's Day, the questions are all about daddy!

1. What do you like doing with Daddy?
Playing doctor.... wrestling. He just got done playing doctor with his dad right before I asked him this, so I asked him what his favorite thing to do with dad is and then he answered wrestling.

2. What was Daddy like as a little boy?
Optimus Prime. I had to ask him 3 or 4 times to get an answer out of him. He kept saying 'I don't know'. Then out of no where he says, 'Optimus!'

3. What's Daddy's favorite food?
 Wendy's. This one was easy!

4. What does Daddy do at work?
 The president, that's where he works. Again a bunch of 'I don't know' and then after like the third time I asked he said president. He said that because Mark volunteers as president of the city garden club.

5. What is your favorite memory of Daddy?

Games, baseball games. I asked him what kind of games and he said baseball. Mark has gone with him to two professional baseball games. He must have really liked it.

What are your kids' favorite memories with their dad?

5ive on Friday: Life Currently

If you get my 5ive reference.... "Did we just become best friends?" Back in an earlier life, I saw 5ive in concert when they were the openers for NSYNC. My friend and I studied all the dance routines from their concert special on Disney Channel. If you remember when Disney Channel used to air full concerts of all the greats (NSYNC, B*Witched, 98 Degrees, Britney Spears) then we just jumped from best friends to soulmates. The GOOD OLD DAYS people!

Ok back to the actual post. I am working on some top secret new projects related to this here blog, but they are slow moving right now because family always comes before work for me. But I promise they are coming soon! In the meantime, here are five things we have been up to lately:

1. In my last life update post, I talked about how I was getting ready for the Just Between Friends kids consignment sale. I have sold a lot of Myles' old stuff on Facebook, consignment stores, etc. but I still had most of his 2t-3t clothes and a ton of books/movies/toys that he recently outgrew pilling up in our garage. We talked about having a garage sale, but we really didn't have anything else to sell besides Myles' things. So when I got an email about the upcoming sale I thought why not give it a try. I plan on doing a whole post just on the process/results of the sale, but I did get my check back this week and wanted to quickly share that. Without going in to too much detail yet, I would say that in this particular instance, the money was well worth the time/effort put into selling at JBF.   

 2. My mom had took time off of work for a vacation to Florida she was planning with my step-dad, but my step-dad got a new job and couldn't take the time off to go with her. So sad right.... well not for me because I got asked to be the new travel buddy! We were going back and forth for a week or so deciding where to go, and then one night my mom sends me this email:

I'm so excited I don't even know how to act. It still feels not real to me, so I will probably not freak out until I am actually on the plane. The longest I have ever been away from Myles is like 8 hours (a couple different times), so I am a bit anxious about that. I know he will be fine and this is a much needed vacation, but I still will miss him dearly! It may sound crazy to non-parents, but a lot can change in just four days when we are talking about toddlers. T-minus 3 weeks!

 

3. I am currently in the process of changing Myles' room. We kept his blue and brown geometric nursery decor for 2 years. We moved into a new house just weeks before Myles turned 2, so I figured it was the perfect time to change the theme. I decided to go with dinosaurs (some dinosaur DIYs) just because it was the most timeless/neutral theme we both liked. That lasted about another two years, until it was time for a big boy bed. I could tell his convertible toddler bed wasn't going to last much longer and we just happened to have an extra full mattress that wasn't being used. So another perfect time to change the theme. I always try to convince him of something that he isn't going to grow out of within a couple months (toddlers change their likes pretty often!) and this time we chose 'outer space'! I love it because it is teaching him and it's fun! I have a ton of DIYs that I am working on and will be posting when they are finished, but for now here is his bed:

Target Pillowfort collection for the win!

4. We have been steadily adding to our smashed penny collection! I have always been big on 'life experiences/memories over things/stuff'. People probably think I'm a bit nuts when it comes to taking Myles places, but I will always choose to spend my money taking him places over buying him things! But we have to have souvenirs to remember the places by, right!?! The thing about me is though that I hate 'stuff'. I am a minimalist to the extreme. So the penny collection couldn't be more perfect! They all fit neatly in this cute passport book my mom got us and takes up very little extra space! I hope one day we will fill this all up and have to get another one. If your a penny collector like us, you have yo check out this website listing the locations of all the machines the whole world!

5. I'm not sure why it took me so long, but I finally created a Facebook page for my blog! I would love it sooo much if you guys would like the page and also leave a link to your Facebook blog pages so I can like you back :)

 I love following great blogs on all social media. Drop me links in the comments below so I can link up with you guys!

2014 Winter family Photos

I was uploading pictures from my phone and SD card this weekend and I realized I never shared our winter family photos from 2014! We took them right before I went on my blogging break, so I guess that's why I never got around to posting them. 
So here they are, only a year+ later!

Do you take yearly family pictures?

{Second Birthday}: The Many of Faces of Myles & Invitation

I think it's safe to say my Myles Monthly posts are over :( but I did want to share everything from his 2nd and 3rd birthdays before I close that chapter of the blog. 

The first movie Myles ever sat the entire way through (in total awe) was Toy Story at about 20 months. I instantly knew that had to be the theme for his 2nd birthday. He was completely obsessed with Buzz and Woody for a llooonnnggg time, so I wasn't worried about him being over it before his actual birthday came. Because we now live so far from our families, his birthday is a big deal to me. I love the idea of a picture invitation; killing two birds with one stone. I can send a new/updated picture of Myles and the invitation as one. Win, win!

Here are the pictures I took and at the bottom is the invitation I sent out. It was one I found on Etsy. I will link it if anyone is interested.

I took a couple more after his nap to showcase his more everyday, natural look :)

And here is the final invite:

Do you ever to picture invites?

Myles Monthly: 22

As you may know, I didn't decide to start my blog until my son Myles was about 8 months old. And well... now he is over 2 years old! I'm still trying to get caught up with the monthly updates and monthly favorites, so I can get, and hopefully stay, up to date. 

 May 15th- June 14th, 2014

Health/Personality
Pretty good month health wise, but we had another 24 hour sickness. This seems to be becoming a trend around here. I don't like seeing him sick, but luckily it only lasted a day again and I'm not going to lie, the cuddles were pretty amazing! It is a completely different Myles from his regular non-stop, go-go-go personality. Tons of cuddles, movies, and sleep and he was feeling 70% better the next day. The craby and clinginess still lingered around for a couple days after, but it was never anything that stuck around too long. 

Watching The Lion King.. gets me every time!

  Last month I touched a little bit on his new flair for the drama and it decided to stick around this month as well. I really can't complain as it wasn't a daily occurrence. However when it did happen, it was intense. This particular day he wanted to see his friend Cammy. He kept saying "door, car, Cammy." When I told him he couldn't play, meelllttttdddooowwnn:

Eating
Steadily trying more foods and adding more to each meal. Still no breakfast food, just milk, but lunch and dinner were going good. Nothing new in the breastfeeding department. Same schedule as last month: once in the morning, at nap time, and before bed.

  Sleeping 
After the slight hiccup during our vacation back home last month with the new big boy bed, we were back to our regularly scheduled program this month. Bed time being from 9pm-8am and one nap still from 1pm-3/4pm.

Saying

For some reason I didn't write down that many new words this month: 
He calls nursing 'drinks', whenever he was tired and wanted to nurse and sleep, he would say 'I drinks'
 'Hold me', 'Oh man'
'Come on mommy' while grabbing my hand and taking me places
He will only call himself baby, He will not say his name. Whenever you asked what his name was, he would say 'baby'. We tried so hard everyday to get him to say Myles, but he wouldn't do it. I think it became a game to him, knowing we wanted him to say it so bad, so he wouldn't.
And lastly, this....

Proud mommy moment :)

Outings

• Fair season officially started and I was all over it! I found out about a children's festival 30 minutes away from us and had to check it out. I couldn't believe how many awesome things were at the festival, some of them actually being FREE! I loved the animals the best (kitten sleeping with baby pigs!) and Myles was all about the air ball blow-up and train ride!

He also got his daddy to take him on this strange, but fun looking motorized horse ride:

• I also found a little amusement park 20 minutes from us. By this time, I knew that we would be moving to a new city within a couple months, so I wanted to make sure we did everything kid related around us. Now that I have Myles, I have an obsessive need to check out every possible kid activity around us. This place was small, but had a couple fun rides, a little creek, two playgrounds, a train, and lots of grass to run and play on. This was the first ride we went on. The cool thing about Myles' age was that he hadn't quite figured out fears yet, so he didn't hesitate to go on this. It went pretty high, but he liked it and actually went on a couple times. He wanted to hold my hand too :)

The bottom left picture is so funny. I captured it just at the right moment because he wasn't ever scared or wanting to get down, so I really don't know what was going on there!

And a little carousal action:

•  I was not expecting it so get so hot in the Bay Area. Before we moved, I figured it would be like San Fransisco weather. Boy was I shocked when I got to the east bay to see that it regularly gets into the high 90s the whole summer. Not complaining at all though; just need a little splash pad action and we are good to go!

   Milestones/Skills

• When we went to the children's festival, Myles rode his first real fair ride. There is a picture above of him riding the train and here is a video. I bought a bunch of tickets thinking he would want to try out all the rides, but he kept saying no to all of them. He went on the big slide once, but wouldn't go on anything else... until we found this train. We used all of our tickets on this train and he rode it like 5 or 6 times!  

• First time riding an escalator. We were at the mall eating lunch and Myles was super antsy waiting for the food, so I took him out to walk around. We were right next to a set of escalators and Myles was super intrigued. So I let him go on it.. game over! He seriously would not stop... down, up, down, up... at least 25 times! I don't know how I got him away from it... maybe the lure of fries.

Funnies and Favorites

•  Loves to check the mail and get the newspaper everyday

• Loves to walk the dog

•  Funny poop stories:
  Myles had a weird infatuation with finding our dog's poop outside. Every single time he went out back (multiple times a day), he had to come running to me yelling "poo poo" as soon as he happened upon even the smallest turd. Then I, of course, had to instantly go pick it up or else he would not stop telling me about it.
  
  
    I let Myles go diaper free for an hour or so in the afternoon when we would be mostly playing outside. Two days in a row he ran inside telling me "poo poo". Thinking it was the usual dog poop I didn't think much of it until I went to go pick up the 'dog poop' and realized it was Myles poop on the ground outside. Not exactly potty training but hey at least I didn't have to clean up a diaper!

• Messy play of course; we can never get enough of it in our house. This month we made Foamy Bathtub Paints! Messy and clean at the same time; parenting win!

• This may come as a surprise, but the trampoline is still a favorite :) After Myles would not get off of the trampoline during our trip back home, I knew he would love the trampoline park! These things are so awesome.. why didn't they have them when I was young!?!?   

• I got Myles a life vest for when we went to the outdoor pool at our gym. He actually wore it most times and did really well with it. I had to take a picture when I saw him put it on like this one day:

• This kid.. I don't even know what to say. I bought him a sucker to keep him entertained on a longer car ride. I heard him keep saying 'stuck' in the back seat. I finally look back and see this:

• And lastly, a favorite of mine. I went to the gym one night for an hour long class and came back to this:

What are some of your children's favorites and funnies?